Netflix’s Blue Period Season 2 anime TV series will have Yatora Yaguchi stressing over his new life as an art student at the National Arts University in Japan. But when will Blue Period Season 2 come out?
The first season of the Blue Period anime was produced by Japanese animation studio Seven Arcs, which is best known in recent times for the Arte anime and the TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You anime. In the past, they also produced fantasy anime series like Dances With The Dragons, Dog Days, Trinity Seven, and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
In the future, Seven Arcs is adapting Mato Seihei no Slave manga into an anime. It’s also been confirmed that TONIKAWA Season 2 is in production.
The studio and main staff producing Blue Period Season 2 haven’t been confirmed yet.
For the first season, the anime project was helmed by chief director Koji Masunari, who is best known for directing Tenchi Muyou! and the Magi anime series. Second-time director Katsuya Asano has the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS to his credit.
Series composition and scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida started her career working on Dragon Ball Z back in the 1980s, but in recent years she’s worked on popular anime like Pokemon Journeys, Violet Evergarden, K-On!, and Blue Exorcist. She’s also worked with Studio Seven Arcs on the Arte anime.
Character designer Tomoyuki Shitaya is probably best known for his work on the Food Wars! anime. Composer Ippei Inoue created the music and it’s his first time working on an anime production.
The Blue Period Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Blue Period OP “EVERBLUE” was performed by Omoinotake, while the ED “Replica” was performed by mol-74.
This article provides everything that is known about Netflix’s Blue Period Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Netflix’s Blue Period Episode 7 release date delayed internationally by production issues
The international release schedule for the first season of Netflix’s Blue Period was a remarkable change of pace for the streaming giant. Typically, Netflix anime exclusives are locked away in so-called Netflix jail until the entire season has already been released in Japan, but Netflix decided to change things up by releasing episodes weekly.
Netflix has apparently been experimenting with various release schedules in Fall 2021. Besides the weekly Blue Period anime, there was the Komi Can’t Communicate anime.
The ARCANE: League of Legends animation (ARCANE Season 2 is confirmed) was released weekly as three separate acts composed of nine episodes in total. Netflix’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6 is releasing 12 episodes before the Japanese TV broadcast even begins in January 2022.
Similar to the JoJo anime, the Blue Period TV show was released first on Netflix Japan on September 25, 2021. Then Japanese TV broadcasters premiered Blue Period Episode 1 on October 2, 2021. Then the international weekly release began on Netflix U.S. and other localizations starting on October 9, 2021.
To make matters even more confusing, the Blue Period Episode 7 release date outside Japan was delayed by a week due to “unforeseen production delays”. The official website didn’t mention whether the Netflix Japan and Japanese TV release schedule will have a similar delay, but it probably won’t since Episode 7 was already released in Japan several weeks prior.
Thus, the first season’s finale, Blue Period Episode 12, is released on international Netflix on January 1, 2022, whereas Japan watches the ending first on December 11, 2021.
Blue Period Season 2 release date predictions: Is renewal likely?
As of the last update, Netflix, Kodansha, DMM Pictures, Studio Seven Arcs, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Blue Period Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of the Blue Period sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Blue Period Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
One critical distinction to know is that Netflix itself won’t directly decide whether to have Blue Period renewed. Netflix has exclusive international streaming rights, but they’re not part of the anime production committee that will make the decision.
Regardless, the streaming success (or lack thereof) on Netflix is a critical factor since streaming revenue is the biggest portion of income in the anime industry. Unfortunately, the Blue Period anime did not manage to make it to the Netflix Japan Top 10, never mind the global Netflix Top 10 for English or non-English TV shows.
Thankfully, Netflix has a history of its anime exclusives being renewed even when they’re not topping the global charts. For example, Netflix’s Record of Ragnarok Season 2, BEASTARS Season 3, The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5, Ultraman Season 2, and The Way of the House Husband Season 2 were all confirmed in production shortly after their respective previous seasons were released.
But it’s not like being a Netflix anime exclusive signifies an automatic renewal. Netflix’s Yasuke Season 2, Netflix’s High-Rise Invasion Season 2, Netflix’s Kengan Ashura Season 3, Netflix’s Drifting Dragons Season 2, Netflix’s The Idhun Chronicles Season 3, and Netflix’s 7 SEEDS Season 3 were never announced even though several of these TV shows were based on finished stories from books or Japanese manga series.
The Blue Period reviews are a positive sign for renewal. Although some reviewers think that the manga is better or that animation quality is ironically bad for a story focused on art, the majority seem to love the way the TV show conveys art in a shonen sports-like manner since it has higher than normal review scores from anime fans.
Therefore, it’s predicted that the anime production committee will likely have Blue Period renewed. The question is timing since anime projects are scheduled years in advance and (unless there’s a studio change) Studio Seven Arcs is likely booked up for the next several years.
As such, Netflix anime fans should expect a multi-year wait for the Blue Period Season 2 release date.
Blue Period manga compared to the anime
The story for the anime is based on the Blue Period manga by Tsubasa Yamaguchi. Serialized in Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine since June 2017, the manga series won the Best General Manga award in the 2020 Kodansha Manga Awards.
When the anime premiered in Fall 2021, the manga series was up to Blue Period Volume 11 as of September 22, 2021.
North American publisher Kodansha USA is handling the official Blue Period manga’s English translation. As of November 30, 2021, the English version was up to Volume 5, while the Volume 6 release date is scheduled for February 15, 2022, Volume 7 for April 12, 2022, Volume 8 for May 24, 2022, and Volume 9 for July 19, 2022.
The biggest critics of the Blue Period anime are probably the manga readers. The execution of the adaptation felt like a paint-by-the-numbers although the moment Yatora’s hand connected with the brush his world lit up with color and sound.
In general, the music did a great job of heightening the mood, but the addition of music especially can change the tone of a still manga scene. Sometimes the soundtrack made certain scenes more heavy and foreboding thus changing the feeling of the story.
The biggest issue is that the anime dramatically cut back on the technical explanations of the art. Considering that one of the biggest draws of the entire manga is how characters explain the art and the techniques related to it this change was extremely offputting to manga fans.
Even when it came to the plot and character development events the anime also omitted many scenes and rearranged the ordering of events in the timeline. So, anime-only watchers are missing out on some of the character development, and certain details needed to be changed to cover the differences between the anime and manga.
Unfortunately, this rushed pacing was necessary in order to fit the manga’s story into the time constraints of only 12 episodes in the episodic TV format required by the Japanese TV broadcasting industry. But this fast pacing comes off as a slightly odd plan considering that the TV series was a Netflix exclusive and the number of episodes is thus rendered arbitrary by streaming platforms.
Here’s a guide to how the anime adapted the manga:
- Blue Period Episode 1: Chapters 1, 2
- Blue Period Episode 2: Chapters 3, 4, 5
- Blue Period Episode 3: Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7
- Blue Period Episode 4: Chapters 7, 8
- Blue Period Episode 5: Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12
- Blue Period Episode 6: Chapters 12, 13
- Blue Period Episode 7: Chapters 14, 15
- Blue Period Episode 8: Chapters 16, 17
- Blue Period Episode 9: Chapters 18, 19
- Blue Period Episode 10: Chapters 20, 21
- Blue Period Episode 11: 22, 23
- Blue Period Episode 12: 24, 25
Keep in mind that certain pages/scenes in the chapters were adapted out of order.
All in all, the first season’s finale, Blue Period Episode 12, found a stopping point corresponding to the ending of Volume 6: Chapter 25 “No Regrets”.
It’s the best stopping point since the long entrance exams are finally over and graduation has finally come. Yatora managed to pass despite the low acceptance rates, and now he looks forward to the next stage in his life.
The good news is that the manga should provide plenty of source material for making Blue Period Season 2 by the beginning of 2022.
Better yet, English-only manga readers can start reading ahead of the anime when Volume 7 comes out in April 2022. In the meantime, it’s recommended to read the manga from the beginning since it skipped over so many details.
Blue Period 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Yatora Yaguchi has done what he thought was impossible. He’s now one of the three people in the oil painting department to be accepted as a student of the National Arts University in Japan on his first attempt, which is particularly crazy since the acceptance rate is only 5 percent.
Other friends have started searching for a part-time job since they’re now Ronin, an art student who hasn’t been accepted into a university yet.
In some ways, university life is surprising to Yatora. The president stripped down to his pants and had a killing intensity during a live-painting demonstration at the entrance ceremony.
And then he stumbles over the wine bottle of the older woman Hanakage Maria, who is apparently a first-year oil painting student who is legally able to drink alcohol since it took her multiple years to get into the university.
But talking to those strange new people made Yatora realize that he had made passing the entrance exam his goal whereas others viewed being accepted as simply a stepping stone toward their ultimate goal in life. Yotasuke Takahashi has also passed and he thinks that viewing the entrance exam as a goal is a huge red flag, but Maria points out the focus should be on the college experience for each individual’s own sake.
All of these new feelings are making Yatora almost dizzy… and that’s before he discovers Maria is actually Professor Hanakage! It turns out this drunk professor just started working on the first year of her doctorate and she thought she’d mess with the freshmen by not correcting their misconception.
The next step is for all of the new students to introduce their previous works and explain who they are as an artist. Some fellow art students are intense and dramatic while others are mellow.
And while Yatora’s presentation is uneventful, that’s when he starts to realize that he really doesn’t know where he wants to take his own art from hereon. The professors also state that “art you make for an exam isn’t real art” and thus their first assignment is to create a self-portrait.
Seemingly simple, this classwork is enough to make Yatora cry. He not only fears that his art is lesser than his peers, but he’s also now feeling convicted by the belief that calling himself a Geidai student is a barefaced lie. He’s barely out of high school and already feels like a failure.
And Yatora’s uncertainty only grows as he ponders a blank canvas that’s supposed to transform into a painting whose theme is “myself as seen by others”. This self-doubt only grows when a professor pointedly questions the necessity of making the self-portrait a painting in the first place.
Yatora needs to fill in this overwhelming blankness before he folds under all the pressure and tries to give up. Will Yatora find himself growing as an artist by trying a type of art he’s never attempted before?
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Blue Period Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!